The daily average high (red line) and low (blue line) temperature, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted lines are the corresponding average perceived temperatures.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on August. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

Clouds

The month of August in Gjoa Haven experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 66% throughout the month.

The clearest day of the month is August 15, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 35% of the time.

For reference, on February 23, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 99%, while on June 12, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 39%.

Precipitation

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Gjoa Haven, the chance of a wet day over the course of August is essentially constant, remaining around 19% throughout.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 20% on August 25, and its lowest chance is 1% on February 3.

The average rainfall (solid line) accumulated over the course of a sliding 31-day period centered on the day in question, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted line is the corresponding average liquid-equivalent snowfall.

Sun

Due to its extreme latitude, Gjoa Haven experiences polar day (also known as the midnight Sun) during the summer and polar night during the winter. These are periods of time in which the sun is continuously above or below the horizon for more than one day. The precise start and end dates of polar day and night vary from year to year and depend on the precise location and elevation of the observer, and the local topography.

Neither polar day nor polar night occur during the month of August.

Over the course of August in Gjoa Haven, the length of the day is very rapidly decreasing. From the start to the end of the month, the length of the day decreases by 4 hours, 42 minutes, implying an average daily decrease of 9 minutes, 24 seconds, and weekly decrease of 1 hour, 5 minutes, 47 seconds.

The shortest day of the month is August 31, with 15 hours, 19 minutes of daylight and the longest day is August 1, with 20 hours, 1 minute of daylight.

The number of hours during which the Sun is visible (black line). From bottom (most yellow) to top (most gray), the color bands indicate: full daylight, twilight (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and full night.

The earliest sunrise of the month in Gjoa Haven is 2:27 AM on August 1 and the latest sunrise is 2 hours, 16 minutes later at 4:43 AM on August 31.

The latest sunset is 10:27 PM on August 1 and the earliest sunset is 2 hours, 26 minutes earlier at 8:01 PM on August 31.

Daylight saving time is observed in Gjoa Haven during 2018, but it neither starts nor ends during August, so the entire month is in daylight saving time.

The solar day over the course of August. From bottom to top, the black lines are the previous solar midnight, sunrise, solar noon, sunset, and the next solar midnight. The day, twilights (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and night are indicated by the color bands from yellow to gray.

Humidity

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The chance that a given day will be muggy in Gjoa Haven is essentially constant during August, remaining around 0% throughout.

For reference, on July 26, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time, while on January 1, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time.

Wind

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed in Gjoa Haven is increasing during August, increasing from 10.0 miles per hour to 11.3 miles per hour over the course of the month.

For reference, on October 6, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 12.9 miles per hour, while on July 12, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 9.4 miles per hour.

The percentage of hours in which the mean wind direction is from each of the four cardinal wind directions (north, east, south, and west), excluding hours in which the mean wind speed is less than 1 mph. The lightly tinted areas at the boundaries are the percentage of hours spent in the implied intermediate directions (northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest).

Water Temperature

Gjoa Haven is located near a large body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, or large lake). This section reports on the wide-area average surface temperature of that water.

The average surface water temperature in Gjoa Haven is essentially constant during August, remaining within 1°F of 36°F throughout.

The highest average surface water temperature during August is 36°F on August 22.

The daily average water temperature (purple line), with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.

Growing Season

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

The growing season in Gjoa Haven typically lasts for 2.1 months (63 days), from around June 23 to around August 25, rarely starting before June 8 or after July 12, and rarely ending before August 4 or after September 11.

During August in Gjoa Haven, the chance that a given day is within the growing season is very rapidly decreasingfalling from 91% to 35% over the course of the month.

Time Spent in Various Temperature Bands and the Growing Season in August

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

The average accumulated growing degree days in Gjoa Haven are essentially constant during August, remaining within 15°F of 91°F throughout.

The average growing degree days accumulated over the course of August, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.

Solar Energy

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in Gjoa Haven is rapidly decreasing during August, falling by 1.6 kWh, from 4.1 kWh to 2.6 kWh, over the course of the month.

The average daily shortwave solar energy reaching the ground per square meter (orange line), with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.

Topography

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Gjoa Haven are 68.626 deg latitude, -95.878 deg longitude, and 0 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Gjoa Haven contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 197 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 45 feet. Within 10 miles also contains only modest variations in elevation (200 feet). Within 50 miles also contains only modest variations in elevation (459 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Gjoa Haven is covered by water (36%), sparse vegetation (35%), and bare soil (28%), within 10 miles by water (60%) and sparse vegetation (22%), and within 50 miles by water (56%) and sparse vegetation (25%).

Data Sources

This report illustrates the typical weather in Gjoa Haven year round, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016.

Temperature and Dew Point

There is only a single weather station, Gjoa Haven Climate, in our network suitable to be used as a proxy for the historical temperature and dew point records of Gjoa Haven.

At a distance of 1 kilometer from Gjoa Haven, closer than our threshold of 150 kilometers, this station is deemed sufficiently nearby to be relied upon as our primary source for temperature and dew point records.

Other Data

All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid.

Disclaimer

The information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site.

We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands.

We further caution that our travel scores are only as good as the data that underpin them, that weather conditions at any given location and time are unpredictable and variable, and that the definition of the scores reflects a particular set of preferences that may not agree with those of any particular reader.